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Maron Mullendore
Ser Maron Mullendore is a knight in service of House Hightower of Oldtown and a major character in Book 1. He is the son of Ser Mandon Mullendore, cousin to Lord Cregan Mullendore of Uplands and father to Dairon and Yoreen Flowers, as well as numerous other bastards. At the beginning of the story, he is the captain of the guard of Oldtown, a position which he uses to fight crime in all its forms. He is noted to be affable unless provoked, but absolutely merciless to his enemies. In secret, he has also taken a more direct way of fighting crime, as he adopted the secret identity of Butterfly, leader of a group of thugs, the Solvers, who take on the problem of crime in Oldtown at all costs. Backstory Maron Mullendore's father was Ser Mandon Mullendore, younger brother to Lord Rogar Mullendore and cavalry officer in the army of House Hightower. With no chances to inherit his families seat at Uplands, Mandon soon moved to the nearby city of Oldtown, where he advanced his military career and befriended Manfred Hightower, the heir to Oldtown. Around the same time, he also married a distant cousin of Manfred, Valerie, from a minor line of Hightowers and together, they had one son, Maron. However, complications during the birth left Valerie frail and weak for the rest of her life, which only lasted for about a year later. The death of his wife event left Mandon bitter and crabby towards everyone, even his own son and he raised Maron with a strict hand. That said, the two were known to be close regardless of his strict upbringing and Maron greatly valued his father's opinion. He grew up into a dutiful and ambitious man, who always had a certain idealism in his actions. However, behind that, the young Maron already displayed a disturbing fondness for violence, which he only controlled for his father's sake. However, when Maron was just a grown man, his father got killed by the Ironborn raider Lunn Pyke, who visited Oldtown on his way east, after the two got into a dispute one evening. Mandon's death caused Maron to dedicate his life to fight for a good cause, in the hopes of honouring his father, but it also caused some of his more extreme positions about crime in Oldtown to develop. Shortly afterwards, he led a group of Hightower soldiers to the Dornish Marches, to support the war effort there. For years, he would fight the Dornishmen with terrifying brutality, acquiring a deep hatred for them. This got only worse when he was wounded severely and left unable to fight. He was sent back to Oldtown, where Manfred Hightower, to honour Maron's late father and his loyal service in the Marches, named him commander of the city guard. In the following years, Maron served faithfully, doing his best to turn the city into a place he deems worth living in. However, his darker tendencies started to come out by now, as he was known to be a serial womanizer, perhaps even outright rapist in some cases. Numerous bastards came from these unions, though Maron only ever recognized one of them as his own, Yoreen Flowers, who took the same path as his father and became a captain in the Dornish Marches. Another bastard of Maron is Dairon, who later became the assistant of Maester Eaton of Raylansfair. Eventually, Maron realized that Oldtown has a serious problem. Crime was out of control in the city, with several influential crimelords ruling different parts of the underworld. Neither of them feared the city guard anymore. After seeing how powerless he truly was to stop them, Maron eventually decided to take drastic measures. Noticing how the criminals didn't fear any authority, he decided to give them something to fear. For this, he created a secret identity, a new crimerlord by the name of Butterfly, who made it his mission to fight any kind of criminal with horrible brutality. It didn't take long until Butterfly's new, ruthless way of working, paired with the intel Maron had as the commander of the city guard, provided surprising results. A majority of the crimelords was gone in a single year, with only the Burned Man remaining and proving to be Maron's most cunning foe. In the following years, Maron got more brutal with every passing day until few things truly distinguished him from the criminals he hunted. He also made absolutely sure that no one would ever uncover his secret. Soon,the name "Butterfly", caused dread among the citizens, not only the criminals, but the ordinary, law-abiding as well, especially since his followers, the Solvers, were not known to distinguish one group from the other. Book 1 Butterfly Maron made his first appearance in the story when he and his guards disturbed a meeting between Lucas Flowers, Leonard Constantine and Archmaester Quent, to learn about the current location of Dairon. He acted friendly towards the two knights, managing to win at least Lucas' trust, though he still did not learn about the whereabouts of Dairon. Slightly disappointed, he left soon afterwards, but not before offering to meet up again, if Lucas would ever like to discuss anything else. Their second meeting came just a day later, when Lucas decided, against Leonard's will, to meet up with Maron again and to discuss if he could help them in leaving the city. Unbeknownst to them, Maron was informed about Dairon's whereabouts by then, as his agents had found out about his location at the Blind Helmsman Inn. The entire meeting was one final chance he offered, for them to support him, but to Maron's disappointment, Lucas continued to insist that he would know nothing about Dairon's whereabouts During the meeting, where Maron's second-in-command at the city guard, Captain Ryder Harrington, was also present, Maron revealed that he accidentally received a raven intended to be sent to the High Septon, which contains information about Harris Flower's murder of Ser Ilhan Lagoon. He shared this information with them and asked of them to bring the letter to the High Septon, while he would prepare everything for them to leave. Unbeknownst to them, he immediately sent his most skiller henchman, Samuel Harrington, to the Blind Helmsman Inn, to capture Dairon, while he himself got there as well. Unfortunately, Lucas' new girlfriend, Lunett Kawl, got in the way, when she blocked the door to her room and allowed Dairon to escape through her window. This act of bravery deeply angered Maron, who decided to punish her. He raped her and severed both of her feet, effectively crippling her. Then, he waited for Lucas to arrive. He didn't have to wait long. Warned by the Burned Man, Lucas and Leonard had brought assistance with them, in the form of Captain Jaylon Gordus and his men from the city guard, all of them secretly involved in Maron's secret role as Butterfly. Lucas noticed his mistake when Jaylon pointed his crossbow at him. Maron revealed his secret to Lucas, before ordering him to stand down, threatening to cut out Lunett's eyes. When she urged Lucas not to give up, he quickly made good on his threat, removing one of her eyes, before threatening the second one. This was finally enough for Lucas to give up and he dropped his weapon. However, Maron did not let Lunett leave, as promised. Instead, he "showed her mercy", which meant that he killed her by shoving the dagger through her remaining eye. Lucas was enraged by this and attacked him, though he was beaten down by Jaylon and knocked out. Around the same time, he tricked the Burned Man, by arranging a meeting between the crimelord's men and one of his own, who posed as Butterfly, arranging everything for this decoy to die in his stead, to make the Burned Man believe that he succeeded in killing his enemy. This part of the plan worked perfectly as well and the decoy died, so that Maron could continue to work in secret. The Iron Price Maron brought Lucas to the Hightower, to find out where Dairon and Lord Raylan's last will have disappeared to, though he ordered Leonard to be taken to a city guard outpost, to separate them. Initially, he personally watched over Lucas' interrogation and he even revealed to him that he is the father of Dairon. However it quickly became clear that the knight would not tell him anything. Knowing that his temper would stand in the way of proper results, Maron called for his chief torturer, a member of the Alley Cats by the name of The Sphynx. After breaking Lucas' pinky finger, to make the following torture twice as painful for the knight, he left them alone. He returned a while later, to check on the results, the lack of which caused him to fling into a rage. He threatened Lucas once again, but the knight stubbornly refused to yield and even outright lied to him. This provoked Mullendore to the point where he heavily mutilated Lucas, taking three of his fingers and one of his eyes, as well as one of his ears. Only when threatening the remaining eye as well did Lucas yield. After getting the information he wanted, Maron left Lucas alone to die. He ordered two of the Alley Cats, the Tom and the Moggy, to travel to the Citadel, to find Dairon. He himself remained behind at the Hightower. Unfortunately, the mission was a failure and Dairon ended up dead, although the Tom revealed Jaylon Gordus' betrayal. This caused Mullendore to be prepared when Jaylon and Samantha Ducard later tried to free Lucas. Maron greeted them and ordered his guards to take them prisoner as well, to bring them to the dungeons. Masquerade A week later, Maron was present at the masquerade ball of Lord Petyr Vyrwel, one of Oldtown's most anticipated events. Every nobleman in the city was there, from Manfred Hightower to the High Septon. However, Maron had also planned to get rid of Manfred and the High Septon during this occasion, to sow chaos in the city, which he would use to rebuild it in the way he wished. A few days before, the Burned Man learned about this from his spies and he sent a group of his most trusted associates, among them Jaron and Harpy, to intervene and to prevent this. However, the Burned Man was under the assumption that it was the Tom who planned all of this, as he, like most other people in the city, believed that Butterfly died a week ago. During the ball, Maron initially had no idea that his enemies were so close. He mistook Harpy for Lady Gwynna Caron, her cover identity and light-heartedly joked around with her, after spending a majority of the evening in her company. He also spoke with Jaron and his gruffly charming sense of humour caused the hedge knight to like him, not knowing that he was speaking to Butterfly. He even spotted the attraction between Jaron and Harpy and gave them relationship advice, showing a completely different side of his personality. The assassination of Lord Hightower and the High Septon did not work as planned. One of the assassins, far too eager to fight and not knowing about Maron's secret identity, outright attacked him, with the intentions of killing him. It was Harpy who saved his life, ironically, while Jaron and the others made sure to save the High Septon and Manfred Hightower. While the mess the assassins caused was removed, Maron received news from the Hightower, where the urchin Himani Sand, working for the Burned Man, had revealed their plans after the Sphynx heavily tortured him. He also learned about Harpy's identity on this occasion, which he found strangely amusing. Instead of immediately confronting her, Maron decided to play a sick game. In private, he gave her a strong hint about his secret identity and watched with glee as Harpy realized whom he truly was. He then allowed her to leave, giving her the hope of escaping. Maron had already guessed their next steps though and he quickly followed them, together with half a dozen guardsmen, led by Jaylon Gordus. Together with the Tom and his bodyguard, the Moggy, Maron ambushed them, with the intentions of killing them. To show them that he meant business, he personally killed Himani right in front of their eyes. However, he begrudgingly had to stick to his own morals, when he admitted that Harpy saved his life earlier. For this deed, he did something he never would have considered otherwise: He offered to show her mercy. Harpy seemingly accepted his offer and got closer towards him, while Maron, bitter about being denied his victory over her, taunted her about leaving her friends behind to die. However, it turned out to have been merely a ruse by Harpy to get close enough to him, to kill him. Jaron figured it out quick enough and he tried to stop her, as such an action would have claimed her life as well. Noticing Jaron rushing towards them, Maron moved his head slightly, which ended up saving his life. The knife which Harpy had hidden in her sleeve ended up destroying his eye, though it did not kill him instantly. Maron ordered his men to slaughter them all and in his blinded frenzy, he even participated in the attack as well. Momentarily, he and Jaron fought against each other, before Maron got his chance to attack Harpy. Unfortunately for him, his wounds and anger slowed him down to the point where she managed to take him on. Over the course of the fight, she rammed a spear through his leg and even started to push it into his abdomen. It was the Moggy who saved his life, by forcing her to retreat. Instantly, a few guardsmen left the fight, to bring the heavily wounded Maron back to the Hightower, for medical aid. Valar Morghulis Though not physically appearing in this chapter, Maron is confirmed to be alive by the Sphynx, in his talk with the Tom. It is mentioned that he is in a bad, but stable condition and that the Sphynx even managed to save his damaged eye, though that he lost sight in it. On the orders of the Tom, Maron is prepared for a journey north, together with his troops. Appearance Maron Mullendore is a man of fifty years, tall, broad-shouldered, but with his age, he is also beginning to get fat. His hair, once fiery red in his youth, is now slowly starting to grey, though his green eyes still have a sharp, piercing look in them. Maron is not a particularly handsome man, he has a harsh, dire look on his face, although his smile is noted to be charming and genuine. Across his body, he has at least a dozen scars, the most noticeable being two on his right cheek. The events after the masquerade at Lord Vyrwel's estate left him grievously wounded. One of his eyes got disfigured and badly wounded, to the point where he lost sight in it, while another wound at his leg temporarily crippled him, making him unable to walk without help. Personality At the first glimpse, Maron Mullendore seems to be a tough, foul-mouthed but well-meaning man with a good heart. He deliberately appears more simple-minded than he truly is, even claiming to be unable to read, to trick potential enemies into underestimating him. As long as he is not provoked, Maron is calm, affable and friendly, the kind of person others easily trust. He is a master manipulator, as well as a compulsive liar, constantly playing those around him for his own goals. However, as long as people stay on his good side, his friendliness is not fake, but absolutely genuine. Unfortunately, it is hard to constantly stay on his good side. Below his affable facade, Maron is a horrible person. He has a dangerously short temper, lashes out with ruthless violence and has a fondness for torture, especially for permanent mutilation. He is also a serial rapist, targeting young and beautiful women who have commited some crime. In his behaviour, Maron is a hypocrite, since despite his apparently good intentions, he utterly fails to recognize himself as being exactly like the people he tries to fight, perhaps even worse. One of Maron's most significant weaknessess is his arrogance. He has an incredibly inflated opinion about himself, up to the point where he is underestimating most of his opponents. However, he is still dangerously cunning, able to trick almost every person he encounters. He has little compassion for others and none for those who go against his moral code, which includes everyone who breaks the law for selfish reasons. Relationships Lucas Flowers When Lucas and Maron first met, at least Lucas got along with him quite well. He easily fell for Maron's friendly behaviour and considered him an honest, trustworthy man. In return, Maron never really saw Lucas as anything but a potential enemy, who hid important information from him. Because of that, he did not hesitate to screw him over to get what he wants, even killing Lucas' girlfriend in the process and torturing him to the breaking point. After this, Maron can be considered his worst enemy and Lucas has nothing but hatred for him. In return, Maron does not really care for Lucas, but considers him an annoyance. The Burned Man The Burned Man was the only crimelord who managed to resist Maron for years. Because of this, he quickly earned his undying hatred. Out of all the people he had to face in his life, Maron considers the Burned Man his finest opponent, even if he doesn't have any sort of genuine respect for him. He and his men are fond of insulting the Burned Man as a cripple and Maron is disgusted by the Burned Man's use of children for his crimes. In return, the Burned Man is disgusted by Butterfly's brutality and likewise considers him his worst enemy. Ultimately, neither was able to triumph over the other, as Maron spent the moment of the Burned Man's death barely conscious in the infirmary of the Hightower. Harpy Maron himself has a very low opinion on Harpy, seeing her as an opportunistic whore and being majorly responsible for racial slurs about her being quite common among the Solvers. He has even less respect of her than of the Burned Man and he considers her incapable of doing even the most simple task. He doesn't even consider her a threat, up to the point where he was even willing to let her live. In return, Harpy fears Maron in his secret identity as Butterfly, she fears him more than anything else and he is a constant source of nightmares for her. Over the years, she developed a burning hatred of him, which only grew stronger after losing many friends to his men. In the end, she got her chance for revenge when she attacked him by surprise, crippling him in the process. After this event, it can be safely said that Mullendore considers Harpy to be one of his most dangerous living enemies. The Tom From Maron's side, he has little fondness of the Tom and his Alley Cats, seeing them as a necessary evil to bring forth his vision of a better Oldtown. He appreciates the Tom's usefulness, but generally sees him and his men as freaks. However, the Tom in return is surprisingly loyal to Maron, as he realized how much the man actually needed them. When Mullendore was heavily wounded, the Tom personally made sure that he would get the best treatment available, as he knew how much he would owe them later and how easy, yet lucrative working under him is. Samuel Harrington At the beginning of the story, Samuel was very loyal to Maron, not out of any personal fondness, but because of a general sense of loyalty and because he counted on getting help in finding his brother. In turn, Maron saw Samuel never as anything more than a useful tool and never even intended to help him. When Samuel found out that Maron was secretly employing his brother as a member of the city guard, he instantly dropped any loyalty towards him and actively worked towards hurting him as much as possible. Appearances Category:Characters Category:Book 1 Characters Category:Major Characters Category:The Solvers Category:House Mullendore Category:Reachmen Category:Oldtown Category:Raylansfair Category:Highborn Category:Knights Category:Book 2 Characters